"This is a great opportunity to give our readers more news and more information about our local economy," said Executive Editor Barbara T. Roessner, who oversees news content and operations for Hearst Connecticut's four daily newspapers and five weeklies. "Local business coverage is essential to our communities. It's a top priority for our newspapers and websites."

Dee DelBello, publisher of Westfair, which is based in White Plains, N.Y., heralded the arrangement as a first-of-its-kind for the company.

"Our two organizations will complement each other perfectly," DelBello said. "The Hearst name is synonymous with great journalism and we are rightly proud of our own publications for their long history of bringing the most comprehensive local business news to devoted readers. For Hearst to reach our readership and for our products to reach their readers makes sound journalistic sense and, more importantly, it gives readers more complete business news."

The Westfair Communications group also includes HVBiz, a section of the Westchester County Business Journal dedicated to the Hudson Valley counties of Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Dutchess in New York State. The publications reach a cumulative 150,000 regional readers.

Hearst Connecticut reaches more than 500,000 residents of greater Fairfield County, including readers of the daily Greenwich Time, Connecticut Post (based in Bridgeport), The News-Times (based in Danbury), and The Advocate (based in Stamford); the weekly Fairfield Citizen, Westport News, Darien News, New Canaan News and New Milford Spectrum; and the papers' nine corresponding websites.

Westfair also sponsors seminars, expos, conferences, roundtable discussions and debates, and the popular Fairfield County "40 Under 40" event, which recently drew a record crowd to the Palace Theatre in downtown Stamford.